3 - (SYM 115) Vulnerability Factors Related to Hoarding and Their Responses to Compassion Focused Therapy

Hoarding Disorder (HD) is characterized by persistent difficulty in discarding possessions due to perceived need to save or distress in letting them go; presence of clutter; impairments in life and social functions due to clutter. Leading up to and since its recognition as a new psychiatric diagnosis in 2013, a number of dysfunction and vulnerability factors have been examined. These include hoarding-related beliefs, challenges in cognitive and executive functions, emotion regulation, and interpersonal relationships, as well as self-related issues, such as shame, self-criticism, and compromised self-esteem. Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) has been studied as treatment for HD, besides Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), because of its focuses on some of the abovementioned vulnerability factors not directly targeted in CBT. In a study published in 2019, group CFT was found to yield significant HD symptom reduction as a second-wave treatment. In a later pilot study examining group CFT as a standalone treatment for HD, significant HD symptom reduction and satisfactory treatment acceptability and feasibility was also found. Building on these, the current study aimed to investigate 1) the effects of group CFT on the dysfunctional and vulnerability areas mentioned above, and 2) the correlations between changes in these and changes in symptom severity. Data was collected in a psychotherapy practice specializing in HD. The CFT group involved twenty 2-hour online sessions led by a licensed therapist. Participants were adults in the state of California. All participants went through a pre-treatment diagnostic semi-structured interview screening for DSM-5 Axis I diagnoses. They also completed pre- and post-treatment self-report assessments on symptoms and psychological factors related to HD, such as emotion regulation, distress tolerance, self-related issues, hoarding cognitions, and executive functioning. This proposed presentation will show preliminary data collected from six cohorts of the group (N = ~35). Results from paired-sample t-tests, examining the before-and-after-treatment changes in HD symptom severity and the abovementioned psychological measures, will be presented. Correlations between symptom improvements and changes in each of these psychological factors will be discussed based on the results of Pearson’s correlations. Implications of these data, next steps, and the pros and cons of private practice-based research study will also be included in the discussion.